Too expensive to eat out anymore?

Is it me or is it too expensive to eat out anymore? The cost of food, drinks, tax, tip, etc. is just too much.

Case in point: Here's a tip: 20% is the new 15%

How long before tips are 25%?

[Ima saver]

Servers only make $2.15 an hour. They depend on tips for their salary. We eat out every night for about $16 plus tip.

The waiter's base wage is irrelevant. When you factor in tips, many waiters make $30/hour and up.

[DebbieL]

Servers make a lot more than that here. Our minimum wage is $8 (or $8.50 - I can't remember). Nobody can be paid less than that. When I used to waitress, I made great money between the tips and wages. Back then, 10% was the more standard tip (I was young - it was around 1990). 15% was considered good. I don't care what they want me to tip. I tip around 12-15% for average/good service. If I get lousy service - lousy or no tip. Great service I will go higher.

[FrugalFish]

I usually tip 20% for good service- I'm surprised it's becoming the rule and not the exception. For me the bottom line is that a tip is a thank you for a job well done and I tip accordingly. I get so irritated when restaurants tag a mandatory gratuity on the bill- we generally don't go back to places that force tipping.

Here in CA, waiters/waitresses generally make minimum wage (it's against the law if they don't, but you know it happens some places), but our cost of living is high, so I feel a generous tip for service well done is a good thing to do. Besides, we don't eat out all that often.

I have friends who I will no longer go out to eat with- they are the type that pick at every little thing, make tons of special requests, but then find a reason not to tip in the end. I won't eat out with them because I fear they'll be recognized and someone will spit in my food!

I have another friend who leaves a tip with a note explaining the tip. He use to be a manager of many people and has very good people skills. Somehow his notes don't sound snarky when he explains he didn't leave more than 10% because his drink was allowed to go empty, but I suspect a defensive waiter/waitress probably doesn't care about the constructive criticism!

The waiters are certainly a big factor, but just eating out in general is way more expensive than it used to be. Going to a basic chain restaurant like Applebee's, TGI Fridays, etc. will cost you $7 or $8 just for a cheeseburger. Add in an appetizer or dessert and a drink, and you're looking at close to $20/person with tax and tip. I'm eating at home from here on out.

[JimInOK]

I've never understood why the percentage would increase over time. No matter what inflation does, 15% of the price of a meal 20 years ago should yield relatively the same amount of value as 15% of a meal today. The price of the meal increased, so 15% of that meal increased as well. So, in constant dollars, the waitstaff rec'd the same amount in tips today as yesterday.

I generally tip 20% now, seeing as going from 15% to 20% on a $30 meal only adds $1.50 to my total (we eat out twice a month, so I can swing the extra 3 bucks), but I just don't get the logic behind the increase in tip percentage.

My question probably makes no sense at all.............

[MonkeyMama]

It is common for servers to be paid below minimum wage though (their tips have to push their total compensation to at least minimum wage). So being paid $2/hour as a server is rather common.

Yeah, eating out is something that doesn't really fit in our budget. IT adds up fast.

[boefixepa]

This is just my personal thoughts here.....

Ya now all that grip about minwage and all that and how it finally was raised...

I've asked, and asked around....the ONLY poeple I found who make minimum wage besides teenagers working dead end jobs are waiters, but they get that $2 somthign not min wage! So instead of raising min wage, what they should have done is just gotten rid of the tipping stipulation! I think that would have helped out the people who need it more. They are the ones making nothing. Yes I know food pricing at restaunrants would go up, but then you wouldn't have to tip, or have them automatically add the tip (I too HATE it when they do that and tell them that they would have received a larger tip if they had NOT done it). I just don't see why we should be making sure all the teenagers get more money when it's generally the single mom, or mom working the dinner shift because she can't afford child care while dad works days, who need the extra money sooo much more. I know there are exceptions, but you have to go with the majority, and around here even Fast food has to pay $8.50+ to get ANYONE to come work for them. I think that change would help more people than just raising the min wage.

Tips are tips you have to earn them. I start at 15% and go up for excellant service and down for lousy....I've had too many roommates/friends who are waiters and know how hard it is for them to make good money.

[Ima saver]

Well, I have not waitressed in several years, and we are rural, but $20 was considered good for day time and $40 total was a great weekend night. Sundays were terrible. That was our busiest day and we made about $12 in tips for a day shift. Our wait staff was expected to do all the cleaning of the restaurant also.

[moneybags]

I read the article. So, basically the tip has gone to 20% because people can't handle the math at 15%. That's crazy. Whenever we go out to eat, I have my kids, 10 & 13, tell me what the tip should be. I taught them that 15% is the starting point, and you can move up or down based on the service you received.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Prices of eating out seem to have gotten way more expensive than inflation too. And it's easily $20/per person at a chain nowadays with tip, tax.

[Broken Arrow]

I noticed that steak in general has gone up. I don't have the link handy, but I read an article somewhere that talks about how the price of beef can be a rather interesting indicator on the state of the global economy. For example, the price of the steak can be influenced by the increase in gas prices required to transport the beef....

I still go out to eat, but in general, I do try my best to keep the costs down.

[DebbieL]

Here in Canada you can't pay anyone less than minimum wage. So wait staff earn at least minimum wage ($8/hr) plus tips. And no, to me 20% should not be the standard tip - it's ridiculous. 20% would be for exceptional service in my books, not the average meal out. They can tell you to do anything they want to tell you to do - tipping isn't mandatory, just tip what you feel is right.

PS - Nowhere that I've eaten puts that stupid automatic gratuity on your bill. I've only ever seen it for an office party I was at where there was a large group, and it was explained to us beforehand.

[rennigade]

The waiter's base wage is irrelevant. When you factor in tips, many waiters make $30/hour and up.

If this quote was true, becoming a waiter would be more difficult than it currently is. I'd be willing to bet you don't make $30 or more an hour. Maybe you should reconsider your current occupation?

If you don't want to tip, move to Australia where tips are not required.

[DebbieL]

Actually, a waiter/waitress in a good restaurant can be a very hard job to come by. They can EASILY earn a wage (with tips) that is higher than many professionals are making. Even 20 years ago, I knew someone working in a fancy restaurant making a minimum of $200/night in tips. Waitresses in night clubs can do even better with lots of drunk people and loose wallets. The prime shifts (weekend nights) are hard to get there too. I used to bus tables at a pretty nice restaurant in 1990. The waiters would give me a cut of their tips. On a good night, my cut of the tips could be about $90. That was with 2 waiters giving me about $45 each. Want to guess how much they were pocketing? I would have loved to have had their job, but I would have probably had to stay there a few years to even DREAM of being allowed to wait tables there (and I hated the coke head owner, so that wasn't going to happen). The owner unfortunately put all the profits up his nose and lost the place within a couple years after I had worked there.

[pearlieq]

Originally Posted by JimInOK

I've never understood why the percentage would increase over time.

I agree completely, and that is why I resist the change from 15% to 20% for standard service. The base price of the entree is going up over time, which increases the waiter's pay porportionally. Increasing the % of the tip makes no sense.

I'm perfectly happy to tip 20% or more for exceptional service, but for standard "get me a drink, bring my entree" I'm not going over 15%. And I'm also willing to go all the way down to 0 for truly awful service.

Aside from tips, I do agree the costs are increasing rapidly. We rarely go to chain restaurants anymore. Why would I want to pay $30 for two mediocre cheeseburgers at Applebees?

We're doing more takeout these days, but when we do go out it's either to a higher end place where the prices are often not that much more than the chain crap but the quality is a lot better, or to a local family restaurant where the prices are low and the quality ranges from decent to surprisingly good.

[Vapors]

Originally Posted by rennigade

If this quote was true, becoming a waiter would be more difficult than it currently is. I'd be willing to bet you don't make $30 or more an hour. Maybe you should reconsider your current occupation?

If you don't want to tip, move to Australia where tips are not required.

I dated a girl when I was in college who was a waitress at Lone Star steak house. She would clear $100 to $130 a night in tips and this was 14 years ago. I was working in a tax office making $7.15 an hour.

And I agree it's very expensive to eat out now. My wife and I only order water now and that can save $3 to $5.

[Ima saver]

We eat at a good family restaurant and many entrees are under $10 each. We brown bag and take our own mixers. A typical night's bill is usually about $16. The waitresses fight over who gets us because I tip 20% or better. They still wait on tables that leave very little or nothing. We good tippes make up for that.
I agree that in a nightclub kind of place they do make excessive tips.

[Gruntina]

I do think it is too expensive to eat out. Not because of the tips though.... because my mind set has changed.

I spent so much money eating out prior to 'getting control over my finances' life change. I was reviewing my bank statement archives around 6 years ago and apparently I did not thinking eating out was too expensive. I paid more then compared to the occasion dinner out now days.


On the other hand, I have felt rip off by lousy food at tourist attraction near in the SF. Bay area and felt dinner out was way too expensive. But when I find a great restaurant and the food was terrific, I felt that was worth every penny.